DICE preview Battlefield 2042 changes for Kaleidoscope and Renewal maps

DICE has released a blog delving into the core feedback they’ve received for Battlefield 2042‘s maps and how this has informed updates planned for the Kaleidoscope and Renewal maps. These changes will be released during Season 1, which is expected to start this summer.

Update: This post originally referenced an outdated blog post, and has been changed to reference the correct, most recent post on the matter. Apologies for the error.

Following feedback to a handful of key areas that DICE requested, they’ve reached some key conclusions and are putting them into action ono existing maps before spreading them to new maps. In particular, traversal time from base spawn to flags was seen to be too long, so DiCE is adjusting to move them closer together.

Here’s an example of the Renewal map:

This updated layout moves the spawns to the corners of the map, shifts A1 and A2 to the Solar panels with B now on the way to C1 and C2 around the wall’s access way. Then Sector D is now much more in-line with Sector E. In general, there’s a clearer path and progression to capture through the map compared to before.

This has, however, had the weird side effect of them literally deleting a part of the map, removing a structure and replacing it with a field. This will reduce memory usage and be more efficient for the map, potentially becoming an out of bounds area to improve the pathing through the map, but it’s a bit weird.

That said, other areas are being significantly improved. Aiming to make the maps look for lived in and immersive, instead of being a bit too clean in the past, Kaleidoscope is having military bases and structures added to key locations, and there will be more cover and elevation changes to help break up some of the more open spaces.

Another key change coming in the future updates will be a rebalancing of the vehicles available in the game. They will make the following changes:

• We’re reducing the number of attack vehicles and helicopters that can be active at any time in 128 player modes per category from 3, to 2. This means you’ll only be able to encounter 2 tanks, and 2 attack helicopters available at any time, instead of 3 each.
• We’re increasing the cooldown for attack vehicles and helicopters from 60, to 120 seconds.
• As discussed earlier, the MD540 Nightbird will be moved from transport into the attack helicopter category, and the MC5 Bolte will also be moved from transport into the attack vehicle category.

Further reading: All Battlefield games ranked in alphanumerical order

Recent reports have suggested that DICE is already starting to get to work on the next Battlefield game, but there’s still plenty planned and expected for Battlefield 2042, as EA hope the game can recover from a disastrous launch. Four seasons of content have been promised, with four battle passes and a new specialist for each. The first season was meant to start around March, but with DICE having to focus on fixing Battlefield 2042 bugs and issues through early updates and having to implement standard FPS features like scoreboards and in-game voice chat, Season 1 was postponed to this summer.

In our Battlefield 2042 review we scored it a fair 6 out of 10, knocking points off for clunky design features, yet praising parts of the core tactical gameplay and the genius of Battlefield Portal:

“There’s a good game to be found within the Battlefield 2042 and fun to be had as the spectacle of Battlefield’s signature gameplay is taken to new, more expansive heights, but it’s marred by a handful of unsuccessful gameplay design changes, hurriedly implemented features and bugs at launch.”

Source: Battlefield

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• Source: https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2022/04/01/battlefield-2042-design-changes-previewed-for-new-and-existing-maps-kaleidoscope-64-player-breakthrough/